This section provides background information related to the present disclosure which is not necessarily prior art.
In modern day datacenters, the static nature of the physical infrastructure (e.g., power availability, cooling capacity and space constraints) and the inherently dynamic nature of information technology (“IT”) workloads have created a data center environment in which significant inefficiencies can often exist. Addressing these inefficiencies would allow the operators of data centers to increase the capacity utilization of their infrastructure and to decrease the overall power consumption. However, the challenge up to the present time has been the inability to dynamically change the physical capacity (e.g., power and/or cooling capacity) associated with the datacenter in accordance with the IT load being experienced at any given time.
Due to the static nature of the infrastructure, IT workloads are typically given a safety margin within which they operate. With reference to FIG. 10, this means that there will always be at least some degree of available capacity that is not being used. If the IT workload starts getting too close to capacity, the infrastructure is upgraded with additional capacity, which is invariably a capital-intensive exercise. From a cost standpoint, then, the present approach of providing a “safety margin” for power and cooling needs can mean significant added expense for an entity. This is because there are often significant stretches during a twenty four hour period where various IT components are operating at less than maximum capacity or are inactive entirely. However, modern day data centers typically must still provide enough additional power and cooling capacity to meet the maximum anticipated workloads of the various IT components.
With reference to FIG. 11, in an ideal environment the IT components and the facilities infrastructures (e.g., presently available cooling capacity; presently available unused power and presently available rack space) will be in constant communication through some physical data center management infrastructure. The physical infrastructure would monitor the IT equipment and adjust capacities accordingly. The data center management infrastructure would also be able to cap the amount of resources used by IT equipment when the workload of an IT component exceeds a maximum overall capacity of the installation. However, a situation may still exist where an application requests a specific IT component (e.g., server) to begin performing a task that will be likely (or certain) to cause an infrastructure resource, such as power or cooling, to be exceeded. Put differently, a situation may still exist where a specific IT device, itself, does not have specific information on the data center resources available for use before beginning a user commanded operation or task. This can result in at least one of power or cooling capacities in the data center environment to be exceeded as the specific IT device begins the commanded operation or task. When power or cooling capacities are exceeded, this may necessitate the data center management system limiting or curtailing the use of other IT devices when the data center resources are exceeded. Thus, having the specific IT device begin taking its requested action without first checking on the availability of data center resources may cause an undesirable change in the overall dynamics of the data center ecosystem. This is especially so in a typical, large scale dynamic IT environment, where equipment is being commissioned and decommissioned frequently to address varying business IT needs. Every change carries an intrinsic risk. As a result, the dynamics of IT loads and the static nature of physical infrastructure often forces datacenters to operate at a safe distance from full power and cooling capacities (i.e., with substantial spare capacities) to ensure that data center resource requirements are able to be met at all times.